UN Mission says those guilty of beheading Ukrainian soldiers must be held accountable

That’s according to a statement released by the Mission on Wednesday, Ukrinform reports.

“The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine is appalled by particularly gruesome videos posted on social media on Tuesday (April 11),” statement reads.

The monitors say one of the videos shows a brutal execution of a man who appears to be a Ukrainian prisoner of war, while the other one shows mutilated bodies of apparent Ukrainian servicepersons.

“Regrettably this is not an isolated incident,” Mission states. “In recent reports the Mission documented a number of serious violations of International humanitarian law, including those committed against prisoners of war.”

According to the statement, these latest violations “must also be properly investigated and the perpetrators must be held accountable.”

As Ukrinform reported earlier, two videos are circulating online showing the executions of Ukrainian defenders by Russian soldiers.

According to CNN, “the videos appear to be of separate events. One of them may have been filmed very recently, while the other — from the amount of foliage seen on the ground — looks like it was filmed during the summer."

The first video was published on a pro-Russian social media platform on April 8. Deliberately filmed by the Wagner mercenaries, it shows two decapitated bodies of Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground next to a damaged military vehicle. Both soldiers also appear to have their hands cut off. Russian accounts claim the video was filmed near Bakhmut.

The second video, which appeared on Twitter and was heavily blurred, was likely recorded in the summer, given the amount of plant life on the ground. "It purports to show a Russian fighter using a knife to cut off the head of a Ukrainian soldier. A voice at the beginning of the video suggests the victim might have still been alive when the brutal attack began," CNN emphasizes.

The Security Service of Ukraine has launched a pre-trial inquiry into the video showing Russian invaders beheading a Ukrainian POW.

Law enforcement agencies in Ukraine are taking measures to identify the persons who committed this horrendous crime.

President Volodymyr Zelensky says that the whole world should see the video of the execution of the Ukrainian soldier, whose head was cut off, and that no one will understand if world leaders fail to react.